‘The American Society Of Magical Negroes’ Review: Kobi Libii’s Fantastical Race Comedy Has Charm If Not Focus – Sundance Film Festival

Today, it’s easy to put Martin Scorsese up there as one of the greatest American film directors of all time. However, according to one of his longest collaborators, that feeling is relatively new, as studios didn’t respect him as a living legend until the last decade or so.

Gen X has gotten. No world wars, thankfully, though we did grow up imagining thermonuclear Armageddon as a genuine possibility, if merely accidental.But the Cold War ended. We were evolving!Some credit Ronald Reagan for ending that chapter.

EXCLUSIVE: Silver Lining Entertainment has signed Mercedes Mason, an actress known for turns on shows like The Rookie and Fear the Walking Dead, for management.

Not since 2019’s crime thriller The Gentleman has Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey gotten a chance to thrill audiences, but it looks like he’s getting closer at finding his next project in a big way. Sources tell Deadline that McConaughey is in negotiations to star in Comet Films and Blumhouse’s The Lost Bus, with Paul Greengrass in negotiations to direct and Apple Original Films in discussions to board the film.

There are just a few hours to go until the all-important final of The Traitors after an entertaining second series. Tonight (January 26) viewers will find out if the remaining Traitors, Harry and Andrew, will be victorious and steal the money, or if the final Faithfuls, Evie, Jaz and Mollie, will suss them out in time to win the prize pot.

American Fiction, a new film based upon the book ‘Erasure’ by Percival Everett. Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David, Issa Rae and Sterling K.

Annika Pham Banijay Benelux’s Belgian banner Jonnydepony has set rising star Willem De Schryver from Netflix’s YA hit show” High Tides” (“Knokke Off”) for the title role of “I Was a Cop in the 80s,” ordered by Amazon Prime Netherlands and Flemish streamer Streamz. The period crime drama in development will be pitched by seasoned showrunner Philippe De Schepper (“Arcadia,” “Missing Persons Unit”), co-writer Bas Adriaensen and producer Helen Perquy (“Tabula Rasa”) as part of a Focus on Flanders at Göteborg’s forthcoming TV Drama Vision (Jan. 30-31).

Diego Ramos Bechara editor Apple announced plans to provide grants to the Sundance Institute Indigenous Program and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, as a part of the company’s Empowering Creatives program. The grants aim to “continue Apple’s work to support and partner with Indigenous communities” by “supporting organizations that help people in underinvested communities unlock their creative potential.” Per Apple, both grant recipients are “dedicated” to amplifying the voices and experiences of Native and Indigenous peoples.

After seeing its Martin Scorsese pic Killers of the Flower Moon, depicting the “Reign of Terror” in Osage territory, score 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Apple has announced new grants to the Sundance Institute Indigenous Program and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, in support of Indigenous storytelling and the preservation of Native American history.

Allison Janney is guest starring on The Diplomat this season!

EXCLUSIVE: The Ford Foundation is coming through for documentary filmmakers in a big way.  

Siddhant Adlakha Modeled on a late-’80s/early-’90s American family sitcom — which soon transitions to a midnight splatterfest — the tongue-in-cheek Dutch production “Krazy House” has all the transgressive stylings of a 15 year-old’s Reddit post on an atheism forum in 2010. Directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil offer ideas of subversion that feel both long-outdated in concept and completely dull in execution, to the point that merely describing the film feels irresponsible, lest its premise accidentally lure curious viewers to the cinema.

Green Day are currently outselling the rest of the UK albums chart’s top 10 combined with ‘Saviors’.The pop-punk trio released their 14th studio record last Friday (January 19), with NME praising it as “their best work since ‘American Idiot'” in a four-star review.According to the Official Charts‘ latest update, Billie Joe Armstrong and co. are on course to earn their fifth UK Number One album during the next chart rundown this Friday (January 26).‘Saviors’ is outselling the rest of the top 10 combined at the midweek point.Green Day are followed in the top five by Neck Deep‘s self-titled album (Number Two), Saxon’s ‘Hell, Fire And Damnation’ (Number Three), Noah Kahan‘s ‘Stick Season’ (Number Four) and The Weeknd‘s ‘The Highlights’ (Number Five).Should the group clinch victory, ‘Saviors’ will follow ‘American Idiot’ (2004), ’21st Century Breakdown’ (2009), ‘Revolution Radio’ (2016) and ‘Father Of All Motherfuckers’ (2020) in reaching Number One in the UK.This week’s Official Chart is due to be announced live on BBC Radio 1 from 4pm GMT on Friday.Green Day are set to embark on their 2024 ‘Saviors world tour in May.

Angelique Jackson Lionel Richie has been very emotional lately, but he wants to reassure everyone that he’s okay. According to Richie, it’s just been a heady experience to look back nearly 40 years and relive all the wondrous and chaotic memories of writing and recording “We Are the World” for the new Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night in Pop.” “Every segment of this journey, I cry,” Richie said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance Film Festival, where the film made its world premiere.

Todd Gilchrist editor Although it isn’t structured any differently from dozens of other cradle-to-grave documentaries about artistic luminaries, “Luther: Never Too Much” sheds light on much more than just the life and career of R&B singer Luther Vandross. Drawn largely from interview and performance footage of Vandross over his almost 40 years in entertainment, and bolstered and contextualized by retrospective talks will collaborators and confidantes, director Dawn Porter’s film exposes some uneasy truths about the music industry and the media we may now know, but whose seeming ubiquitousness at the time he was alive may be difficult to fully comprehend.

The US Sun on Friday. “I would certainly show up,” the actress enthused about a possible reboot.

Kobi Libii’s work on the sadly short-lived Comedy Central show “The Opposition with Jordan Klepper” always tended toward the confrontational. By donning the guise of right-wing media provocateurs, he highlighted the absurd internal contradictions of ideological hardliners.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic For some of us, “American Fiction” has a satirical audacity that’s funny right out of the gate, gathers speed and force on the runway — and then, somehow, just when the comedy should be taking off, it turns muted and moralistic instead. I think the hitch is that after Jeffrey Wright’s Monk sells his fake memoir of Black street life, there’s a strong urge to see him — and the film — take a certain vengeful joy in how the book’s popularity skewers the racism of clueless white people. Instead, Monk is made so miserable by what happens that the movie never allows itself to discover that joy.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director One of the boldest movies premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival is “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” directed by Kobi Libii. The film takes aim at the Magical Negro stereotype and centers on a young man (Justice Smith) who is recruited into a society in which African American members are tasked with ensuring that white people’s lives remain easy. Libii, Smith and co-star David Alan Grier visited the Variety Studio presented by Audible and spoke about the reactions to their button-pushing satire.

and so are we — but Mitski sure isn’t.Fans of the wistful indie icon will be pleased to hear that she’s added 15 August and September shows featuring special guests Laufey, Lamp, Alvvays, Arlo Parks, Ethel Cain and Wyatt Flores on select dates to her 2024 ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We Tour.’On the first leg of the tour, Tamino, Sunny War, Julia Jacklin and Sarah Kinsley will serve as Mitski’s support acts.With the addition of the second North American leg of the tour, the 33-year-old singer-songwriter now has 51 U.S. concerts lined up this year; that includes seven consecutive New York City and Brooklyn gigs at the Beacon and Kings Theatre this February.“In our efforts to make the show experience extra special, we found beautiful, seated theaters to play over multiple nights, rather than one giant venue per city, in the hopes of offering a more intimate experience to the audience,” Mitski shared on Instagram.And if you’d like to hear her 2023 album “The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We” as well as favorites like “Nobody,” “Washing Machine Heart” and more in intimate settings live, you can grab tickets for all 50+ Mitski shows as soon as today.Although inventory isn’t available for the newly announced August and September concerts on Ticketmaster until Friday, Jan.